


Magic and Flames

by Straight_Keith_is_scary



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Balmeran Hunk (Voltron), Coran Coran The Gorgeous Man, Dragon Hunk, Dragon Keith (Voltron), I am very sorry about that last one, I’m still kinda mad that “dragon pidge” isn’t a tag we need to work on that peeps, Lance is a Mage, M/M, Magic, Olkari Pidge | Katie Holt, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Apocalypse, Slow To Update, You’ll see, bc spoilers you see, dragon pidge, just trust me ok, so is Veronica because she is queen and i said so, some supernatural-type stuff, sorta - Freeform, tHIS ISN’T AS WEIRD AS IT SOUNDS I PROMISE, uhhh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-09-16 17:29:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16958397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Straight_Keith_is_scary/pseuds/Straight_Keith_is_scary
Summary: ....I swear the tags make it sound weirder than it really is lmaoJust over two hundred years ago, the world was thrown into nuclear war. The aftermath left damage all over the world, wrecked civilizations, a horribly diminished population, and major climate changes. But the one change that no one could explain away was the strange appearance of what could only be described as magic in seemingly random individuals... not to mention the dragons. Nobody could explain where they came from, and nobody could ever get close enough to even try.Lance McClain has spent his whole life traveling from city to city with his family and anyone they take on, temporary or permanently. He has always wondered why the magic he can use is stronger than his siblings’, why the dragons seem to only pop out of storms to wreck the occasional caravan when they could clearly be doing so much more, and why the world existed as it was.Then one day he accidentally gets caught in the middle of a dragon fight and finds an injured one in the woods afterwards. Could this be the source of answers he’d always been looking for?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been bouncing around in my head for SO long but I only started writing as a gift for a friend of mine (you know who you are, I’m sorry this is late, I love u tho) 
> 
> >>>GROUND RULES<<<  
> 1) humans are much rarer than they are in modern times and the continents are much smaller due to environmental damage (Read: climate change made the oceans rise) 
> 
> 2) nobody really knows where magic came from and nobody really knows how it works but I KNOW so all you really need to know is a) humans think they’re the only ones who have it (wrong) b) there’s a limited amount of energy one can use for spells and the like, and c) most humans can only use one type of magic that they’re born with. It’s very unusual to have more than one ability
> 
> 3) Dragons aren’t a mystery because no one cares, they’re a mystery because nobody friggin survives them and there’s good reason for that
> 
> 4) Lance and his family are essentially nomads who specialize in surviving around old human settlements and helping travelers along, but neither of his parents are in this story for reasons to be explained later

The ruins of the ancient city gleamed dustily in the late morning sun. Bits of old paper and random trash floated about on gentle breezes, and occasionally a lonely bird would fly overhead. Overall, it was a deserted and desolate place, once full of life- now down to only two lives, those of the two teenagers wandering through its streets. One was heavyset and much taller than the other, who was lanky and thin, but they both shared similar faded clothes. As they walked, the lanky one excitedly pointed out different parts of each building they passed and kept sketching in a small, tattered notebook while the heavyset one glanced around at their surroundings suspiciously.

 

“Lance, let’s go back. This place-“

 

“-Gives you the creeps, I know, you’ve said it roughly a dozen times before now,” snorted Lance, rolling his eyes and jokingly elbowing his best friend. “Hunk, come on, there’s a seasonal storm coming up and you know it. We need better shelter than that crappy forest.”

 

“Then we find a cave! There’s mountains nearby!”

 

“Since when do you prefer a creepy cave as opposed to actual buildings that people used to live in? You’re a hypocrite!”

 

Hunk sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. If Lance had been looking up, he would have seen the irritated gleam in his friend’s golden-yellow eyes. “Have my instincts ever been wrong before? There’s something seriously wrong with this old city. Sure people used to live here, but that was more than a hundred years ago, when the stuff we deal with didn’t even exist!”

 

Lance hesitated. Hunk had a good track record of infallible instincts- most notably being the time he’d managed to steer their party away from the path of thieves who would have easily made off with all their valuables without Hunk’s warning. All the same… “I see your point, but if we don’t at least look, then that storm is gonna do a whole lot more than creep us out,” he said, tucking the pencil into one pocket of his battered jacket and pointing behind them to the horizon, where ominous dark clouds hovered darkly. They’d been getting steadily bigger for the past two days or so, and the destructive reputation of Midwest storms was known far and wide. If Lance’s family and the people traveling with them didn’t find shelter soon, the storm would likely injure- or kill- them. Hunk was teetering on the edge of just leaving, Lance could tell, but he kept pushing. “Okay, fine, just another half-hour? Please?”

 

Hunk groaned loudly. “Fine, but if we don’t find anything good, I’m dragging you back myself.” Lance grinned widely and took off into a nearby building they’d wandered next to while talking before Hunk could change his mind. He had no idea what it had once been for, but it was huge and roomy and clearly sturdy, given its good condition. It reminded him vaguely of an arena of some kind. “Lance! I said look around, not go sprinting into unfamiliar buildings! LANCE!”

 

Lance slowed down enough to let Hunk keep him in sight, but he couldn’t stop ogling the strange shape of the giant building around him. Faded colors adorned the walls- murals of some kind?- and little structures that reminded him of market stalls lined the sides of the tunnel-like halls. Lance reached a crossroads after a couple minutes or so, stopping in order to decide which way to go (and to let Hunk catch up). One way had sunlight shining through it, indicating that it led outside, but the other lead downwards, into the ground.

 

“I think that’ll work,” said Lance to himself. Without thinking to check behind him for Hunk, he started down the underground pathway, snapping his fingers to let a little ball of light illuminate his way.

 

“Lance, you’re not seriously considering this- oooh, old kitchens!”

 

“See, big guy? This place should be perfect to stay in,” said Lance smugly, Hunk having been won over by the artifacts within the weird old building. Or so he thought.

 

“I don’t know, Lance…”

 

Lance sighed. “How about a compromise? We don’t have much of a choice when it comes to where we stay since the storm’s so close, but we don’t have to stay here any longer than it lasts. Sound good?”

 

“I can live with that,” said Hunk, sighing. “Until the storm’s over. That’s it!”

 

“Deal.”

 

 

….

 

 

That night, their party took shelter inside the city. The group was largely dominated by Lance’s four siblings and himself, with his oldest sister Veronica as the de facto leader, but also included several solo travelers and traders who knew better than to try and cross the Storm Plains alone. Hunk had been around since he was a little kid- nobody knew what happened to his family, including him- and their mutual friend Pidge joined up for shelter a year before. She didn’t like the city much, either.

 

“How did you let him talk you into this? Every single building in this city just REEKS of-“ Hunk clapped a wide hand over Pidge’s mouth hurriedly, eyes darting to where the others were setting up bedrolls and a place to build a small fire. No one seemed to have heard.

 

“Pidge, shush! I know what it smells like, but have you tried arguing Lance out of something he’s determined to do? Besides, he’s actually right.”

 

Pidge huffed. “About what?”

 

“About the fact that we can’t survive without something sturdier than that crappy patch of woods we were in,” said Hunk, sighing.

 

“It’s just a big storm,” said Pidge, shoving a pair of false glasses up the bridge of her nose (“For the aesthetic” was her excuse for wearing them despite not needing them) as she spoke. “It can’t possibly be worth staying here, even if the scent is stale-“

 

“Be a little quieter when you talk about that kind of stuff!”

 

“Right. Sorry,” said Pidge. She clearly wasn’t sorry, judging by the grin on her face- the little gremlin. “But how bad could it possibly be?”

 

“You have no idea,” said Hunk, shuddering. “Those storms have been known to level entire forests, old cities- they _kill_ , Pidge. We’d be goners.”

 

“ _They_ would, not us,” muttered Pidge. Hunk lightly shoved her shoulder and decided to just get up and cook something to help calm his nerves.

 

“Hey, big guy! Thank God you’re here, Luis tried to take over dinner,” greeted Marco, one of Lance’s older brothers, jokingly. Hunk snorted. Luis, Lance’s other brother, was many things, but a good cook sure wasn’t one of them. “You here to help?”

 

“Yep,” said Hunk, looking for the old-but-still-useful collection of cookware their party hauled around. As he did, he noticed a suspicious lack of Lance around lurking in an attempt to steal food. “Where’s Lance?”

 

Marco opened his mouth to reply, then frowned in contemplation. “Huh. You know, he was here a second ago, I swear- oh, he’s talking to Veronica. Over there.” Marco was right- although from the looks of things, Lance wasn’t so much “talking to” his sister as he was “getting told off by” her, likely for leaving early without asking permission first. Relieved that Lance hadn’t gone wandering off (again) Hunk went back to cooking prep, putting his worries at ease for a time.

 

A little time.

 

Not a lot of time at all, actually.

 

 

…

 

 

The storm hit at around ten that night. A thunderous crash woke Lance from what had previously been a very good dream involving pancakes and he fell right out of his makeshift hammock and onto the floor- hard. “¡ _Tio_ _Alejandro_! ¡ _Estoy_ _asustado_!” Sylvio, his nephew, immediately shot over from his bedroll a few feet away and tackled Lance, crying loudly. He could barely be heard over the thunder and howling winds outside. “Shh, _estará_ _bien_ ,” Lance said groggily, struggling to get his wits about him. The combination of loud thunder and hard floor waking him up did absolutely nothing for his head. “You’re okay, kiddo, we’re safe in here- Luis!”

 

“I got him!”

 

Lance let his brother handle the crying little boy and made a quick check around their campsite to ensure no one else was hurt or panicking. Several of the traders were groggily reassuring each other, and one person had apparently hit their head out of shock, but other then that, all was evidently well. Hunk ran up to Lance urgently and shouted over the storm- “Have you seen Pidge?”

 

“What? She’s missing?”

 

“I saw her go down one of those tunnels we never explored and went back to sleep earlier- I didn’t say anything because she does this a lot, but she hasn’t come back yet and now that the storm’s in full swing I’m getting really worried!”

 

“We have to go look for her,” said Lance urgently, grabbing a small water bottle he always kept on him (for magical use) and clipping it to his belt. He started hurrying away from the campsite and towards the tunnel Hunk had indicated, still talking. “Something might have happened- she could be trapped somewhere, or lost-“

 

“I don’t think the storm is the only danger out there, Lance! At least tell someone where you’re going!” Hunk protested, stopping on the trail and anxiously glancing back to the glow of the fluttering campfire. The storm continued to rage on outside, adding adrenaline to their already-charged conversation. “You go tell and then catch up with me!” Lance said, flapping a hand at Hunk and continuing to run. He could have sworn he heard Hunk call him an idiot before the two split ways, Lance down the tunnel and Hunk back to the campsite. A snap of his fingers made a glowing blue spark leap into the air, which Lance used as a lamp to continue into the dark tunnel. Maybe it had once been a hallway or something, judging by the uniform design of the dilapidated gray walls, but time had worn it down until mildew grew from every crack and crumbled bits of the walls and ceiling littered the floor. Even so, Lance could understand why Pidge had decided to randomly go exploring- she was always doing stuff like that, usually with the excuse of “research” or something, though Lance suspected she had a deeper reason (once, she’d said something like “Matt would be so jealous” about an old machine, but when Lance asked who Matt was, she’d frozen up and immediately changed the subject).

 

“Pidge, you down here? Hello-oooo?” Lance shouted, wondering if maybe part of the tunnel had collapsed and she was trapped. He took another step and his foot hit something slippery, which promptly sent Lance right into the floor. Naturally, the magical ball of light decided to wink out, sending him into pitch blackness. “Oh godda- wait.” Lance, about to swear and try to get up, cut himself off when his hand went right through a curtain of moss and into empty space beyond it. He hurriedly sat up and snapped his fingers again to summon his light. Instantly, his surroundings came into focus- including Hunk, who’d somehow managed to sneak up on him.

 

“SWEET MOTHER OF SANTA MARIA- dude! Not cool!” Lance yelped, leaping to his feet and swatting his best friend on the shoulder. “Don’t just sneak up on people like that!”

 

“I thought you heard me coming!” Hunk protested. When Lance sighed and went back to inspecting the hole, he continued, “Think you found something?”

“Yeah, this looks like exactly the tunnel Pidge would take one look at and disappear into,” said Lance, snorting a little. “Let’s go.” Hunk gulped, but followed Lance through the moss curtain and into a much damper, smellier tunnel that angled sharply downwards. As they traveled, each one trying to avoid slipping, Lance spoke.

 

“So what’d my sister say?”

 

“She said, and I quote, ‘Tell Lance not to get himself killed because I’m going to kill him myself once he gets back. And make sure you find Pidge and come back safe’,” said Hunk dryly.

 

“That sounds like Veronica. So the usual, then?”

 

“Yeah, pretty mu- WHOA!” Hunk’s foot had hit a particularly slippery patch of mud and sent him reeling into Lance, who lost his balance and slid down the rest of the slope. Lance’s light went out and they skidded through muddy darkness until Lance felt something hard and tall break his fall. A loud THUMP to his left followed by an “OW” was probably Hunk.

 

“You okay, buddy?” Lance asked loudly, struggling to get his bearings. Making and losing his lanterns so frequently was becoming a drain on his strength, but he did it once more anyway. As soon as he did, though, he regretted it- his light illuminated a massive, bestial skeleton, with enormous jaws full of razor-sharp teeth right next to him. He’d managed to miss crashing right into those teeth- barely. More skeletons exactly like it littered the cave they’d skidded into, all scattered but still recognizable. They were dragon skeletons, all charred, as if something had killed them in a massive oven.

 

“OHGODLANCENOTHATSAPILEOFBONES-“ Hunk stammered, scrambling over to Lance and clinging onto him in fear, scanning their surroundings with jerky movements. “There’s more over there oh god no this room is FULL OF BONES LANCE-“ Lance grabbed Hunk’s shoulders and shook him a little with some difficulty.

 

“Hunk! Calm down! They’re just bones-“

 

“Dragon bones! I don’t want to think about what could kill a dragon!” That made Lance hesitate. In all the rumors, tall tales, and friend-of-a-friend stories and accounts he’d ever heard, none of them ended in a dead dragon. Ever. Suddenly, a horrible idea occurred to him. “Hunk, if whatever killed these dragons is still down here…. what about Pidge?” Hunk gulped, still breathing heavily.

 

“I- I think she’d be smart enough to leave as soon as she saw these. R-right?”

 

“I definitely want to leave,” agreed Lance, keeping his grip on Hunk’s shoulders as he warily eyed the shadowy depths of the cave. “But who knows about Pi-“

 

“Did you hear that?” Hunk interrupted anxiously, jerking his head towards the opposite end of the cave. The shadows there seemed deep, like they extended for miles. Lance was certain there was no wall beyond where his meager lantern could reach. It was creepy, yes, but also silent save for their panicked breaths and voices. “Um, no?”

 

“There it is again!” Hunk stage-whispered, removing Lance’s hands from his shoulders and taking a cautious step towards the darkness. “Like… crunching? Maybe it’s Pidge!” Lance instantly felt lighter. If they’d found Pidge, they could get out of the scary cave and back to their well-lit and better populated campsite- with fewer creepy skeletons.

 

“Pidge! You there? It’s Lance and Hunk!” He waited for his small friend to say something, likely a witty insult, but the response they got was definitely not “small”. Instead, a rumbling growl rippled from the shadowed parts of the cave, and a pair of glowing yellow eyes and smoking orange nostrils appeared and began to creep forward through the darkness. To Lance’s horror, he realized that the cave didn’t just continue to go on past his light- there was a corner, which the massive beast now stalking them had been hiding behind.

 

“Oh- oh god,” squeaked Hunk, reaching for Lance’s arm slowly while the dragon advanced further into the light, revealing teeth like knives and claws like scimitars. The horns atop its head scraped the ceiling and its half-spread wings brushed either side of the cave’s walls easily. This was an old dragon- and the old ones were the ones to watch out for. “Lance, back away slowly. Maybe it won’t attack us if we-“

 

“RUN FOR IT!” Lance screamed as the dragon darted its head forward like a snake, he and Hunk separating just in time to avoid the gnashing teeth. The massive dragon roared in displeasure as both humans ran straight for the exit, blowing a column of flames that billowed closer- Closer- Lance could feel the heat on his back- And then Lance skidded to a stop, letting Hunk run past him and through the exit to start climbing, and threw up a magical shield. The flames hit like a meteor, shattering the shield like glass and sending Lance flying backwards into the mud of the exit tunnel. Dazed as he was, Lance barely registered Hunk grabbing him by the collar and dragging him upwards. As soon as they made it out, both terrified humans ran for it as fast as their legs could carry them until the sounds of the storm returned and they could see the campsite. Pidge, somehow, was already there and talking to Veronica, but she stopped when she saw Hunk and Lance.

 

“Guys! There you are! You didn’t have to come looking for me-”

 

Lance cut her off, breathing heavily from terror and running. “Dragon! There’s a dragon! We saw- it chased us- gimme a sec- to breathe.”

 

Veronica went visibly paler in the flickering light. “You’re kidding, right?” It wasn’t a question. She knew.

 

“He’s not,” said Hunk, recovering his breath. “We probably lost it, though-“

 

Just then, earth-shattering roar split the air and the pounding THUD of massive wings beating cut him off. Someone from the opposite side of the campsite screamed in horror as the dragon formerly chasing Lance and Hunk underground ripped a massive hole in the inner wall. It roared its challenge to the panicking humans inside, smoke pouring from its nostrils and eyes bright with fury. Now that Lance could get a better look at the thing, he could see that it was far more terrifying than it had been even in the shadowed cave- with rough indigo scales and a violet underbelly that seemed bloodstained in the remaining firelight, jaws dripping saliva and molten bits of flame, and eyes that burned from the inside with sickly yellow light, the dragon was a beast to be feared.

 

“EVERYBODY GET TO SHELTER!” Veronica bellowed, energy crackling around her fingertips as she faced down the dragon. As a lightning mage (even a limited one with a long recharge time per bolt) she was much better at offense than Lance, who specialized more in shields and lights. Regardless, he stood right beside his sister and a couple mages traveling with them to fight.

 

“Lance, go with the others,” hissed Veronica, not taking her eyes off the snarling dragon. It seemed to be… waiting for something? Challenging her? “You can shield them-“

 

“That thing's focused on us, I’m better here,” argued Lance. Veronica looked like she was about to protect, but just then, a rumbling snarl from the dragon facing them down cut her off.

 

“How kind of you to line up for me,” it hissed, fangs bared in a dragon’s grin. Lance and the mages with him all froze in shock when the dragon actually spoke- it could do that? Who knew? “And how brave to try and face me… go ahead, try to pierce my armor with your lightning and your fire- makes for a spicier meal!”

 

Upon its last word, the dragon lunged forward, jaws snapping inches from Lance’s face. He panicked and threw up a shield, just barely keeping himself from getting skewered, but the dragon only swatted him with one massive paw and sent him flying into a nearby wall. Through fuzzy vision and ringing ears, Lance saw one of the two traveling mages hurl a fireball at the dragon only to get slashed viciously in the chest and fall back. Veronica and the one remaining mage- a water user- also fled backwards as the dragon began to fight to open up the wall further to get inside. Lance used the wall as a crutch, shaking his head as if to clear water from it, and tried his best to think of a good escape plan. They could beat a dragon, right? It was only one dragon. Then he realized that it hadn’t blown fire at any of the humans once. It was _playing_ with its food- there was no way four weakened mages could ever take this thing down if it wasn’t even using its full strength to incapacitate two of them in as many seconds.

 

“-ance? Lance! Get it together!” suddenly Veronica was in front of him, shaking his shoulders. Since when was she close enough to do that? And since when was he near the exit tunnel? To his horror, Lance realized he must have passed out briefly- that was the only thing that could account for his memory gap. “We need to get out of here, maybe it’ll get tired of chasing us, come on-”

 

“Oh, go ahead, try it,” barked the dragon, who had half its body through the hole in the wall at this point. Veronica gripped his shoulder tightly, her eyes never leaving the dragon. Oddly enough, half its face was covered in an odd-looking burn now- was that from Veronica’s lightning? Could it be? She’d already used up one bolt, who had she recharged that fast? “You’ll get snapped up regardless. What, afraid of a beast that speaks, little mages?”

 

A single paw, claws out and dripping with blood, planted itself in front of the exit. The dragon’s other foreleg braced itself on the opposite side of Lance and Veronica, trapping them. “Cat got your tongue? Psh. I thought humans loved to jabber all day long. You’re rather disappointing- every other human I’ve eaten has been quite loud, it’s entertaining.”

 

“Get away before you get a matching burn on the opposite side of your face,” growled Veronica.

 

Lance gulped. “What she said,” he said, struggling to keep his voice level. _I_ _hope_ _the_ _others_ _get_ _away_ _safe_ _at_ _least_.

 

The dragon snorted violently several times in rapid succession, which was terrifying until Lance realized it was just laughing- at which point he was only marginally less terrified, to be honest. “You are mice to me- and yet you think you can bargain with the cat!”

 

The dragon dissolved again into laughter before leaning its face down closer to Lance and Veronica, opening its mouth to say something else. Before it could, however, one ear cocked to the side as if it heard something suspicious and the dragon jerked its head back out to face the lessening storm. As it did, it laid its heavy tail directly in front of Lance and Veronica, trapping them against the wall. Lance was so distracted by this that he almost missed what Veronica hissed in his ear- “Use that trick you did earlier!”

 

“My shield? If that thing snaps at us I won’t be able to keep one up-”

 

“No, that crazy light attack! Do that!” Lance had no idea what she meant and he was about to say so when the dragon finally focused on them again, apparently disregarding whatever had distracted it. Its tail swept back behind it, dropping them both to the ground roughly. “Tell me, who exactly is cocky enough to face me down? Hmm? What are your names?” Veronica’s grip on Lance’s shoulder was tight enough to cut off blood flow to his arm. She said nothing, and neither did he.

 

The dragon growled. “Oh, fine. I suppose I’ll go without my fun this time.” It inhaled, presumably to blow fire, and Lance and Veronica held onto each other tightly in preparation. There was no way either of them could survive a direct blast- then, in a rush of wind, the dragon about to kill them both was dragged backwards by some unseen force. Lance and Veronica scrambled to their feet in shock, with Veronica fully prepared to fight again, but all they could see outside in the still-driving rain was a writhing ball of scales and claws and wings- but now there were brown and gold scales and stubbier horns instead of the rough purple spikes- _it_ _was_ _another_ _dragon_.

 

“It’s distracted, time to run!” Veronica said, grabbing Lance’s arm and dragging him towards the exit. Before they could make it more than a couple steps, however, the purple dragon originally threatening them hurled its attacker right through the almost-destroyed wall and into the entrance to the exit tunnel. Lance and Veronica had to duck to avoid flying shrapnel and the floundering tail of the brown-and-gold dragon. Lance got tossed to the floor by the force of the impact as the purple dragon stuck its hissing head into the now-open section of arena, angry as a hive of shaken bees.

 

“Well, we’re dead,” said Lance blithely. He was definitely in shock now- or his legs were just paralyzed, who knew. “Been nice knowing you, Ronnie.”

 

“Where’d the second one even come from?” Veronica said, dragging Lance to his feet and behind a fallen chunk of concrete to hide. “Just how many dragons did you and Hunk tick off?”

 

“Just the one, last I checked,” said Lance sarcastically. “But maybe the brown one’s on our- look!” The brown-and-gold dragon was standing up dizzily and shifting off the fallen boulders from its impact. Unlike the angular build of the purple dragon, the brown-and-gold one was rounded with muscles and had friendlier golden eyes- if dragon eyes could be called friendly- with a shorter neck and wings. It looked built to smash through things and snap whole trees in half with one paw- but the purple dragon, if less muscular, was definitely much larger. If the brown dragon was on their side, Lance didn’t particularly like their odds.

 

“Should we wait for them to duke it out or what?” Lance muttered to Veronica, eyeing the two growling dragons, who were squaring off with each other like dogs. Loud growls resounded from each dragon in turn, almost like they were communicating.

 

“Yeah, then we run for it,” she said. “That brown one might be fighting the big purple sucker, but I don’t want to find out if it’s to defend us or just get ahold of another source of food.” Lance felt a chill go down his spine at those words. He hadn’t even considered another angle, too relieved that something had saved their lives- even if it was a dragon.

 

Veronica waited for the purple dragon to be absorbed in its opponent, then tapped Lance’s shoulder and gestured to an easily-climbable section of the rockslide, where they should have been able to reach the outside and start running. “Go!” Lance scrambled out from behind their cover with his sister, sprinting as fast as he could despite pain from what was probably a cracked rib and a fractured collarbone. They’d made it about halfway up before the purple dragon spotted its prey getting away. It immediately blew a column of flames right past the brown dragon directly at the two mages, but before the flames could hit, a wall of scales placed themselves between the flames and the rocks. Lance looked on, shocked, as the brown dragon took the hit meant for him and then barreled forward into the purple, knocking the air from its lungs in an audible whoosh.

 

“I _said_ , don’t touch them, you worm,” growled the brown dragon, wings spread in a show of dominance. Lance felt his chest go numb. He knew that voice, knew it like the back of his hand. It may have been deeper than usual, a little more gravelly, but-

 

“Hunk?”

 

 

Earlier…

 

 

“Hunk, that wasn’t any old dragon and you know it,” Pidge hissed, tugging on his sleeve. “That was a Galra and Lance is still back there-“

 

“I know he is! I KNOW!” Hunk whisper-yelled, something in him snapping. “Go with the others, okay? Stick with Marco and tell him to get out of here into the nearest shelter! I- I’ll find you guys, got it?”

 

“ _Excuse me?_ Hunk _, no!”_

 

But Hunk had already slipped away from the group, using the general panic as a distraction to go back unnoticed. He doubted Pidge would actually stick with the group, but she would at least make sure they were safe, so Hunk could focus on saving his friend. As he ran back down the darkened tunnel, two of the traveling mages who’d been with Lance and Veronica sprinted past him in terror. He shuddered when he saw the fire mage, whose clothes were torn and covered in blood.

 

“Lance, you’re gonna be the cause of my early death one of these days,” Hunk muttered to himself, sarcasm doing little to calm his nerves. He knew all to well that it might come true as he spotted rain and the occasional flash of lightning at the end of the tunnel and slowed his pace, waiting to see exactly what the situation was. As soon as he got a good look, he cursed under his breath. This was bad, very, very bad. The Galra had Lance and Veronica pinned against the wall with his- his? No, yes, that was definitely a male- back to Hunk. There was a stroke of luck, at least.

 

_You_ _haven’t_ _done_ _this_ _in_ _years_ , whispered a little voice at the back of his head as Hunk snuck outside to get enough space for his plan. _You’ll probably fail, and then what?_

 

“You can shut up now,” Hunk said out loud. Too loud- the Galra heard him and whipped around, just barely missing Hunk before he ducked behind a chunk of concrete flung by the violence of the Galra ripping the wall open. Once he thought the coast was clear, Hunk closed his eyes and finally, for the first time since he was a kid, undid the spell holding him back. It was like uncorking a bottle of shaken soda- magic rushed out, glad to be free, and shapeshifted him into a muscled dragon bristling with fury.

 

Hunk lunged forward and snagged a loose wing with his teeth, yanking the aggressive Galra away from his friends. What followed was a breathless few seconds of pitched battle, but Hunk was way in over his head and got thrown hard, the impact jarring his skull bad enough to daze him temporarily. When he stood up again, it was unsteadily, but he wasn’t backing down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Veronica drag Lance behind a fallen rock- good, they had shelter.

 

“Who are you? This is my territory,” snarled the Galra, teeth bared and tail whipping. His wing was bleeding heavily where Hunk had bitten him, which meant he was cornered- and a cornered dragon fought to the death. Oh boy. “If you want prey, go east- but get out of my hunting grounds!”

 

“And these are _my_ friends,” said Hunk, stomping one foot in anger. His own native language was rusty and hesitant, something that the the Galra must have noticed.

 

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re one of those cowardly deserters,” he said, snout wrinkling in distaste. “Living with humans, eh? I hate dragons like you- can’t stomach war? Lizard.”

 

“You don’t know me, and you don’t scare me,” said Hunk, ignoring the insult and lying through his teeth. In truth, his knees were shaking and his head was buzzing and he could barely think straight, but he wouldn’t back down regardless. “Go find some other dinner.”

 

Instead of a response, the Galra looked past him and blew fire unexpectedly. Hunk whirled and saw Lance and Veronica attempting to climb out via the rockslide he’d inadvertently caused- _you_ _guys_ , _come_ _on_ , _seriously_? - and jumped in front of them without another thought. The flames were blistering along his side, but his move was enough of a surprise to give Hunk an opportunity to slam headfirst into the Galra and knock him down. In pain and dizzy with perceived victory, Hunk forgot not to speak English.

 

“I _said_ , don’t touch them, you worm.” He was about to try and knock out the Galra a little better than just winding him when he heard a small voice behind him speaking in disbelief.

 

“Hunk?”

 

Hunk froze and slowly turned his head back towards Lance and Veronica. Raindrops from the almost-dead storm poured unheeded on all their heads, the only sound in the wrecked structure besides Hunk’s heavy panting.

 

Then Lance’s words registered. “Uhh, no? Who’s that? I mean- uh- what’s a hunk?” Hunk bluffed, wings floundering in the air as he tried to brush off any suspicion. It didn’t work.

 

“Oh my god, it really is you,” said Lance, clambering onto a higher spot on the rockslide to be on Hunk’s level. Veronica was right behind him, mouth open in shock, which was fair. “Hunk! What even! You-”

 

Hunk braced for the accusations.

 

“-can turn into a dragon? This is awesome!”

 

The words didn’t fully compute. Lance wasn’t that thick, right?

 

…. Right?

 

Veronica groaned and slapped Lance in the back of the head. “Lance, you idiot, this isn’t a spell. Hunk is a dragon- _aren’t you?”_

 

Hunk gulped. To an outsider, it might have seemed odd for a musclebound flying reptile to be scared of a comparatively small human, but there they were. “Uh… yeah. Sorry I never told you guys, but I-“

 

“That’s NOT what I meant,” said Lance, exasperated. “Of course I- LOOK OUT!”

 

Hunk turned too slowly to escape the claws of the recovered Galra and got slashed along his snout. Already hurt from taking flames and being slammed into the wall, he went down quickly. Only Veronica managing to make a direct hit into the Galra’s eyes with a lightning bolt saved them all from the flames, but the stubborn and prideful dragon still wasn’t going down.

 

“I told you to BACK OFF!” Hunk roared, pushing himself upwards. His head connected with the base of the Galra’s neck (a weak point in dragons, normally much better protected) and sent him sprawling at last. Hunk took a couple seconds to feel euphoria over winning before collapsing to the ground. Ow.

 

“Oh man, are you okay?” Lance scrambled down from where he was, sending pebbles raining onto Hunk’s back, and skidded to a stop by his head. “That- that’s a lot of blood, man.”

 

Next to Hunk as a dragon, Lance was only about as tall as his skull. It’s a little unsettling, having one’s best friend only able to speak eye-to-eye when on the ground. “I’m fine… mostly,” said Hunk. “But we need to leave before that guy gets up, come on-“ He struggled to his feet, swaying unsteadily. The rain had halted but for a few welcome drops that landed on his snout as promptly got licked up.

 

Veronica was the next one to speak, her voice sounding tired- and now wonder, since she’d used up more magic that was probably healthy in the fight. “Hunk, can you… shift back, or reuse the spell, or whatever? Turn human again?”

 

“Yeah, just gimme a se-“ Hunk was cut off by distant roars coming from somewhere off the the west. They were followed by higher-pitched screams that chilled him to the bone.

 

“That sounded like-“

 

“The others!” Lance interrupted Veronica with a panicky shout. “I thought that dragon was the only one!”

 

It only took Hunk another couple seconds to realize what was happening. “Oh, god. There was more than one. There’s always more than one!”

 

“What’s that supposed to-“ Hunk snatches both Lance and Veronica up in one paw (carefully- his claws were nasty) and leapt into the air clumsily. It was a struggle to get airborne and chase the sounds of screaming, but he still went as fast as possible, hoping against hope they’d make it in time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I intended to post this a week after the first chapter lmao writing block is my worst enemy 
> 
> Happy New Year everyone and enjoy!

Lance wasn’t having _that_ hard of a time processing everything. Getting attacked by a dragon? He could deal with that. Blacking out without explanation? Weird, but he could deal with that. Even Hunk turning out to be completely different than Lance had always known him was surmountable. He wasn’t having trouble believing his situation. He was having trouble thinking of ways to get out of it.

His family, Pidge, and their traveling companions were huddled in the middle of the crumbling street only a block away from their former campsite with four huge dragons circling threateningly. The fire and water mages from earlier were trying to put up some kind of barrier, but a single hit from one of the attacking dragons’ tails sent them both flying.

“I’m gonna drop you two on one of the nearby buildings, got it?” Hunk shouted over the wind of flight, his neck craning down to make eye contact with Lance. “I can’t keep track of you and everyone down there at the same time!”

Before either human could protest, he’d dived low over a crumbling-but-sturdy roof, let go of them, and swooped away. “What’s he thinking? The smallest one is twice his size!” Lance said, scrambling to the edge to get a better view.

“If I stay still and rest long enough, I might be able to summon a lightning bolt,” said Veronica, thinking aloud. “Maybe he’s trying to hold them off long enough for us to come up with something? Maybe?”

Below, Hunk landed heavily on the concrete not far away from the attackers and roared some kind of challenge at the biggest one, who turned around and roared back. A draconian shouting match? Was he stalling?

Lance thought for a second before an idea occurred. “Ronnie, there’s loads of puddles left over from that storm, not to mention whatever’s in the drains. I can pick up the water and-“

“You can’t be serious. Go down _there_? You’d be toast in two seconds flat!”

“Not with water magic,” countered Lance, wincing at a particularly loud roar from below. He wasn’t sure which dragon made it, but it didn’t sound friendly.

“That’s not exactly your best skill,” said Veronica. She had a point- Lance was much better with light and healing, but healing wouldn’t do much in a battle, and his light magic was recharging.

“It’s the only skill I have left to use right now! Hunk can’t stall forever-“

As if on cue, snarls rippled through the air and Lance whipped around to see Hunk get jumped by two of the purple dragons. His friend was big and clearly strong, but those two were going to rip him apart.

“Lance, we need another plan!” Veronica snapped, reaching for his arm. She could always tell when he was about to do something stupid, and Lance was definitely about to do that.

“No time- you focus on making another bolt! And wait for my signal!” Lance said, reaching out with his magic to find the many reservoirs of water lying around the abandoned city. As soon as he found them, he called every drop to him and leapt off the side of the building.

Reckless? Oh, absolutely. But Lance had a plan. Sort of, anyways. It involved a lot of yelling and improvisation.

 

…..

 

Having spent almost no time at all as a dragon since the age of seven, Hunk was already clumsy with his true form- fighting one Galra, with surprise on his side no less, was hard enough. But two jumping him? That was pushing it. One clamped his jaws down on the burn on Hunk’s shoulder, serrated teeth digging in, and the other tried to go for the weak spot under his jaw. Hunk flailed, way out of his element, while the trapped humans screamed and were threatened into place by the remaining two Galra.

_I’m_ _gonna_ _lose_ _this_ _fight_ -

“TAKE THIS, YOU OVERGROWN FLYING LIZARDS! HYAAAA!”

Hunk’s head snapped up, accidentally ramming one of the Galra attempting to kill him in the jaw with his horns (the weak spot was an instant K.O. for any dragon, though fatality wasn’t always assured). The other temporarily stopped attacking to stare at the sight before them, clearly confused- and Hunk couldn’t particularly blame him.

Lance, the idiot, had jumped off the building Hunk left him and Veronica on- but he was using massive amounts of leftover rainwater to slow and guide his fall. Icicles formed unnaturally quickly along the sides of his improvised water tornado, flying right into the eyes of the remaining dragon pinning Hunk. He fell back, roaring in pain, and Hunk took his chance to hit his weak spot with his heavy tail.

Meanwhile, Lance landed on the ground and sent more icicles flying at the remaining Galra keeping his family and their travel party trapped. The smaller one got hit in one eye and began frantically trying to pry the freezing-cold missile out, but the larger one merely swatted Lance’s attack aside with one massive wing and leapt right across the small group of humans, claws extended to grab Lance. His water magic was running out quickly- Lance wouldn’t be able to shield himself in any way if that Galra made contact.

“Don’t touch him!” Hunk roared in dragontongue, tackling the big Galra from the side. He wasn’t able to do much more than knock him aside, but at least bigger damage had been prevented.

“FOOL!” The Galra recovered quickly, whipping around and swatting Hunk across the side of his snout. His claws hit the still-sensitive claw marks from Hunk’s previous fight, stinging all the more. “DO YOU NOT KNOW ME? I AM COMMANDER SENDAK, RIGHT HAND TO EMPEROR ZARKON! NONE WHO FACE ME ON THE BATTLEFIELD LIVE TO TELL THE TALE!”

Hunk could hear (distantly- he’d taken some hits to the head) Pidge’s loud gasp. Outwardly, he tried to show no weakness, but he was terrified. From what he’d been told, this was no dragon to antagonize.

So naturally, Lance decided to antagonize him.

“Hunk, you know that clown? I’ve never heard of any Emperor Zebra or whoever,” snarked Lance from in between Hunk and Sendak. He was small compared to Hunk, but next to Sendak, he was minuscule. “Or this guy, for any matter. Must not be _that_ famous.”

Sendak growled, but for whatever reason, he didn’t attack. Instead, he fixed Hunk with a one-eyed glare that said “stay still or else” and looked to his troops, where the dragon Lance had hit with an icicle was standing up with one eye squeezed shut and leaking blood. His next words were in dragontongue. “Haxus, hold.”

“Yes, sir,” said Haxus, who glared at Lance with hatred in his one good eye. Hunk looked to Pidge, who looked back, terrified. Every human in the small circle on the street remained deathly silent.

Sendak turned back to Hunk and Lance, leaning his head down to speak to the human. “Listen here, _mouse_. I’m here with a purpose.”

“What, lunch? Not gonna happen,” Lance scoffed. Hunk flicked a small rock at his back with one talon, attempting to shut him up since he couldn’t move against Sendak without the rest of Lance’s family being harmed. It didn’t work. “What? I think I’m allowed to insult the guy threatening _my_ _family_.”

“My only threat to your family is if any of them are mages as well,” said Sendak, his voice laced with sweet poison. He raised his head and spoke louder so that the other humans could hear him. “Listen well, if your brains are advanced enough to understand!”

“Doubtful,” muttered Haxus from where he stood guarding Lance’s family. Hunk heard Pidge snort derisively at the Galra’s comment.

_Please_ , _don’t_ _you_ _start_ _antagonizing_ _them_ _too_ , he pleaded internally.

“I am only here for the mages in your party! I know about this one,” said Sendak, moving one taloned paw closer to Lance, who scrambled closer to Hunk. “But I know there are others. Step forward, and the _nonmagical_ humans will be just fine. If nobody steps forward, however… well, we have ways of revealing mages. Three down, but how many remain?”

Silence. Hunk knew Lance and his siblings were thinking about Veronica, who was hopefully still safe on that roof he’d left her on, and Lance’s niece, who was showing signs of being a water mage like her uncle.

Sendak growled. “Well? There’s got to be more than two pathetic water mages and a fire mage who couldn’t light a candle.”

“If they’re so pathetic, why do you want them?” Pidge demanded loudly form where she stood, Lance’s niece clinging to her legs.

_Pidge_ , _for_ _the_ _love_ _of_ _god_ , _hold_ _your_ _tongue_! Hunk prayed, knowing that she wouldn’t listen even is he spoke aloud. He knew what she was doing- attempting to get information.

Sendak, however, remained unimpressed and unruffled. “The plans of Lord Zarkon are his own, little human. Fair warning, I am not averse to getting a _snack_ before we leave.”

Hunk saw Sendak’s distraction and cast around for something, anything, he could use to somehow attack fast enough to both stop the general and his lackey. A flash of light far above caught his eye. Unthinkingly risking Sendak attacking his exposed neck, Hunk tilted his head upwards to see a bright flash of lightning descending from a clear sky.

Apparently Veronica had had enough time to recharge.

Her bolt hit Haxus square in the chest, giving Hunk an opening to lunge at Sendak. The general toppled quickly, caught unawares by the bolt and Hunk’s weight careening into him. Unfortunately, he clearly had more experience with battle then Hunk, and easily threw the smaller dragon into the building next to them.

Hunk didn’t quite register the next few seconds. He saw Haxus stagger back up again, along with the other two Galra previously left unconscious. He saw Lance try to shield him from Sendak’s claws- _no_ , _don’t_ , _he’ll_ _kill_ _you_ \- and in the next second, a weak bolt of lightning hit Sendak right in the back of the neck.

He didn’t see what happened next. The only thing Hunk remembered after that was someone small and dressed in green shaking his snout and yelling his name right in his ear.

 

….

 

Lance only remembered seeing enormous claws reaching for him and feeling someone shove him to the side. Next thing he knew, Sendak roared something to his soldiers and they were all flying away, three with something in their talons. No, someone- the purple dragons had taken what mages they could grab, including…. including his sister.

The dragons left behind scattered and horrified people still processing the shock. Lance only really became back to himself when his brother started shaking his shoulders and saying something loudly.

“Lance, I said, _are_ _you_ _okay_?”

“Luis, I’m fine! I swear!” Lance protested, escaping his brother’s grip as quickly as possible.

“At least you are,” muttered Luis, relenting. “God… what just happened?”

“You tell me,” said Lance, heart sinking as he looked around. Injuries and shell-shocked faces were present on everyone, especially-

“I have to go check on Hunk,” he said, leaving Luis to console his wife and darting over to where Pidge was having a hastily-whispered conversation with the heavily injured dragon curled up at the base of a nearby building.

“Lance!” Pidge yelped, jumping at him for a hug that nearly knocked the wind out of Lance’s chest. She pulled away seconds later and punched him in the arm- _hard_. “That’s for scaring me, idiot!”

“Ow! Not my fault you ran off in the middle of the night!” Lance retorted, rubbing his arm indignantly. “What even, Pidge?”

“Uh…”

“Exactly.”

“You-!”

“Stop fighting,” rumbled Hunk, sticking his head in between the two. A drop of blood fell from the deep scratches on his snout to hit Lance’s shoe.

“I can try to heal that for you,” Lance offered, white light already gathering around his hands as he reached out.

Hunk shook his head and drew back slightly. “I should probably-“

Hunk was cut off by Marco storming up and angrily yanking Lance away from the dragon, eyes alight with fury. “You! I can’t believe you would hide a secret like this from us!”

“Hey, he had a good reason,” Pidge protested, much to Lance’s surprise. Had she known all along?  _Could_ she have?

“I don’t give a-“

“Marco, stop! It’s still Hunk!” Lance said, stepping in between the two placatingly. “He saved my life, alright? It’s not his fault that-“

“That what? That our _sister_ is missing, probably dead? How do we know those dragons didn’t track him here or something?” ” Marco snarled. Lance took a step closer to him unthinkingly, but Hunk lunged forward like a snake and dragged him backwards by the hood of his jacket.

“Hey-!”

“Don’t fight with your family for me,” said Hunk, standing up with a wince (this was probably a bad idea, as he now towered over the three humans). Marco backed away quickly, fear crossing his features as the dragon leaned closer to talk to him directly. “I can leave, alright? It’s pretty clear you don’t want me here.”

“Hunk, you’re not serious,” said Lance disbelievingly.

“We can leave,” said Pidge, shoving her glasses further up on her nose in a determined way. “And go track down those G- dragons.”

“Why would you do that?” Marco asked, barely concealed anger behind his eyes. “And why are you siding with-“

“Because I don’t think the people they took are dead,” said Pidge. That statement made the tension in their little circle thicken enough to cut with a knife. “I’ve had experience with these specific- uh- types of dragons. They don’t take prisoners unless it’s for a specific reason, especially not human prisoners.” Her voice softened just a little. “There’s a good chance Veronica’s alive.”

Lance got the distinct feeling that Pidge knew much more than she was letting on- and he had a hunch he knew why- but an idea occurred to him before he could expand on that hunch. “I’ll go with you.”

All three heads whipped towards him and every single person opened their mouth to argue. “No, no, listen to me! This- this is partially my fault, alright?”

“Lance…” said Hunk softly, but Lance didn’t let him continue.

“I’m going with, and nobody’s gonna stop me. If i have to go on my own, I will,” he threatened.

After a few moments of silence, Pidge was the first to pipe up. “Cool, now we have a proper mage.”

“Pidge!” Hunk yelped.

“What? Am I wrong? Lance has a right to come with us! It’s _his_ sister!”

“You two don’t get a say in this,” said Marco. He sighed heavily and turned to his younger brother, dragging him away to talk. Behind them, there was a flash of light and Hunk went back to his human form, still bleeding heavily and in the same clothes he’d been in before the whole debacle. “Lance, don’t even think about it. We have to stay together, got it?”

“And what if we actually do find Veronica and bring her back?” Lance challenged. “You can’t seriously be willing to give up on her like this.”

Marco hesitated.

“I’m with a huge, muscle-bound dragon and a girl who could probably take out three armed men with one well-placed smoke bomb,” said Lance, snorting a little (Pidge had once set off a stink bomb under Marco’s hammock as revenge for taking her breakfast muffin- except Lance was actually the one who did it). “Plus, with all modesty, I’m pretty good at magic. I’ll be fine.”

“You’d be going up against creatures that _no_ _one_ survives.”

“ _We_ just did,” Lance pointed out. _Mostly_ , his brain added. Shut up, brain.

Marco bit his lip, then sighed heavily once more. “You’d be careful?”

“Duh.”

“No crazy hijinks?”

“I thought you knew me, bro-“ Lance gulped at his brother’s glare. “Yeah, okay, no crazy hijinks.”

Marco gave him a suspicious squint, but let it pass. “Then _fine_ , I won’t try to stop you. But you _better_ come back in one piece or I-“ he coughed. Were those tears in his eyes? “You better be okay. Find us in the Western Capital once you’re done.”

“I’ll be okay - and so will Veronica. I promise.”

 

…

 

It took Lance about fifteen minutes to pack up everything he’d need and say goodbye to his remaining family members, but it somehow felt like about three seconds before he was doing what he could about Hunk’s many wounds (which wasn’t much) and on the road with him and Pidge, following the trail of blood splatters left from the low-flying dragons traveling north. Sylvio didn’t stop waving at Lance until they had passed out of sight, which definitely did _not_ make Lance tear up. Not in the slightest.

Maybe just a little.

“So what happens once the trail runs out?” Hunk said after maybe five minutes of silent walking. They’d made it out of the city proper by that point, and now only the shells of small buildings and rubble remained.

“Then we use this,” said Pidge, pulling something small that glinted in the sun from her pocket. Lance squinted to get a better look at it- it was a purple scale, jagged along one edge and slightly bloodstained.

“Where’d you get that?” Hunk spluttered, wincing when his surprised jump jarred the arm he had in a sling (apparently wing wounds transferred to other points on the body when a dragon transformed- the skin on his arms was painfully lacerated from bites).

“It wasn’t hard to pick one up from the ground,” scoffed Pidge. “You did a number on a couple of those Galra- enough to scrape off some smaller scales.”

“I’m sorry, the who now?” Lance interjected, staring at the little purple scale in Pidge’s hand. “And how do you know so much about dragons exactly?”

Pidge snorted. “You haven’t guessed?”

“She’s a dragon too, Lance,” Hunk supplied helpfully. Lance wasn’t even surprised at this point.

“So what, you found us and stuck around because of Hunk?”

Pidge refused to meet his eyes. “Sorta.”

She was clearly hiding something, but Lance chose to let it be. “Fine, so who’s the garlic or whoever?”

“Galra,” corrected Pidge. “They’re a pretty vicious dragon clan- that’s our word for groups of different variations. I’m Clan Olkari, in the far north.”

“So which clan are you from?” Lance asked Hunk, who looked exasperated.

“I’ve lived with you since I was seven, Lance, I don’t have a clan anymore,” he said, as if this was obvious (and it kind of was, but Lance chose to blame residual shock for his not realizing). “By blood I guess I’m Clan Balmera, but I don’t really remember them.”

“But anyway, dragon scales have powerful magical properties if used right- but since you’re a light mage, that makes our job easier,” said Pidge smugly, pocketing the scale. “Granted, those Galra took some hard hits, and they’re carrying prisoners. We might run into them anyway if we hurry.”

“Maybe you could shift?” Lance suggested. “Scout ahead?”

“If I did run into those Galra, I don’t want to risk a confrontation,” said Pidge, flapping her hand in the air in a dismissive way.

“Can I see what you look like as a dragon, then?” Lance asked, curious. “I’ve only seen Hunk and the Galra up close.”

“Nah,” said Pidge, huffing a little. “You know, it looks kinda windy up there, I don’t know if I should fly. And-“

“I never said fly,” said Lance, smirking a little. “Can you shift?”

Pidge turned bright red. “Of course I can,” she scoffed, quickening her pace to move ahead of Lance and Hunk by a few steps. “It’s just not ideal.”

“She’s really small for her age,” Hunk whispered to Lance confidentially. “I’m talking only a foot or so taller than you. She’s embarrassed.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” said Lance, a little too loudly. “She is really short.”

“I HEARD THAT!”

Hunk only laughed as Lance yelped and ran away from Pidge, who’d dropped her backpack and started whacking him with a rolled-up map as revenge. It was a nice break from the seriousness and blood of the day.

“I surrender! I surrender!” Lance yelped, hiding behind Hunk as a shield.

“You better!” Pidge said, waving the map threateningly. She dissolved into giggles seconds later. “Come on, let’s keep going. We’re gonna hit the woods soon.”

She was right- without Lance noticing, they’d reached where thick forests sprung up on the edges of the city’s outskirts. Here, the blood trail on the ground stopped. Pidge took out the pilfered scale again.

“How exactly do we use that scale?” Lance asked, leaning over Pidge’s shoulder to get a better look at it.

“That’s where you come in,” she said, holding it out. “You’re always going on about how good you are at light magic- can you do a tracking spell on the owner of this scale?”

“Not right now,” said Lance, shaking his head. He could feel the light magic within- present, but weak. Tracking spells required more energy than he had. “We can wait, or I can take a nap- _something_ , just let me recharge. It’ll take a while.”

Pidge groaned. “Stupid magical laws. Now we have to find a place to rest.”

“Don’t you use magic?”

“Yeah, but just for shifting between dragon and human, really,” she said. “I’m more focused on science. Did you know humans used to be able to carry devices with practically all the world’s knowledge in their pockets? I’ve never found one that still works, but apparently they were called “shellphones” or something. The one I found once had a weird word on it- “Nokia” I think. Not sure what it means, but that’s the only shellphone I’ve ever seen in person.”

“As interesting as that is, we should at least try and figure out which direction those Galra went,” said Lance, derailing her. Pidge had a habit of jabbering on about whatever subject interested her without end. He squinted at the tree line, searching for any sign of the dragons’ passing.

“Check it out,” said Hunk, pointing to a spot down the line from where they stood. It looked like something heavy had crashed into the tops of the trees, taking off several yards and leaving a barely-visible trail of lone bits of wood and leaves and other debris. “They might have been flying heavy enough to do that, you think?”

“What else could have?” Pidge said, strutting towards the wreckage. “Lance, is there _any_ magic you can do right now?”

“How about healing a paper cut?” Lance said sarcastically, following her. “Healing recharges pretty quick, but nothing else I can do does.”

“Guys, what if we actually do run into them? Like, today?” Hunk said, sticking close to Lance. “None of us are really in any condition to fight, you know.”

“Then we sneak around,” said Lance, ducking under a branch as they entered the forest. “And if there is a confrontation, we’ll deal with it. I’m getting my sister back no matter what.”

They all went quiet for a time after that. There was something unsettling about the forest, something that Lance couldn’t quite pin down until he realized- there were no animals. No birds sang in the trees, no rabbits or deer or any of the other creatures that frequented the area jumped through the brush. He would even have been happy to see a wolf (though not _that_ happy) just to make sure there wasn’t something wrong.

“There’s no animals,” said Pidge quietly, voicing Lance’s thoughts aloud. “I can’t smell anything animal-ish, either, so they’ve been gone a while.”

“Sme- oh yeah, the dragon thing,” said Lance, momentarily confused. He went back to being generally confused about the lack of animals moments later. “You think the Galra scared them all away?”

“Something did,” said Hunk. When Lance met his eyes, there was fear behind them. “I’m not sure about the Galra, though… there’s certainly _something_ that smells like them, but it’s not quite right. Coming from….” he looked to Pidge for help.

“That way,” she supplied, pointing slightly off to the left.

“What do the Galra smell like?” Lance wondered aloud.

“What, the ones we met?” Pidge asked, turning to meet his eyes. Her voice was cold. “Blood.”

“She’s being dramatic, it’s not _just_ blood,” reassured Hunk. “There’s more musk, smoke, and burning meat. Plus sulphur. This smells more like woodsmoke than anything else, though… and I think cinnamon?”

“Yeah, that’s not better,” said Lance, spooked. Just then, they all heard a rumble from somewhere ahead of them and froze. It reminded Lance of the warning growls from Hunk he’d heard during the battle- a dragon’s voice.

“Was that actual words or just like, a growl?” Lance hissed to Hunk, making a mental note to learn as much of the dragon language as possible.

“Basically a groan,” Hunk whispered back. “Like someone in pain.”

“That might be one of our Galra, left behind because of injuries or something,” said Pidge, creeping forward. “The Galra don’t like weaknesses. Maybe we can get some information out of him?”

Hunk spoke up, grabbing Pidge’s shoulder with his good arm to prevent her from climbing through the bushes separating them from the source of the growl. “Maybe don’t jump that far ahead without concrete information- Lance, no-!”

Hunk wasn’t quick enough to grab Lance before he got through the bushes and into view of a clearing covered in broken branches and scorched patches of earth. There was a dragon there, alright, but it wasn't one of the Galra that had attacked them. This one lay with its back to Lance, wings awkwardly kilted about and tail lashing. It had black scales, thin red spikes down its back, and purplish-red wings. Lance wasn’t sure why it just lay there until he saw the thick, metallic ropes secured to sturdy trees around the clearing and wrapped around its body- this dragon was caught in a trap.

“Oh geez, poor guy,” said Pidge, popping up next to Lance out of nowhere. Hunk stayed just behind them, fearful of the trapped dragon. “Who could have set a trap like that?”

“We should help him,” said Lance, already stepping forward to do just that. “Maybe he saw the Galra and they trapped him- ow!”

Pidge had yanked his arm back. “Dude! We don’t know if he’ll attack us or not! Besides, shouldn't we be looking for a campsite and making a plan?”

“We’re not gonna find them on foot, and I can’t do a tracking spell yet unless I rest up, there’s your plan,” Lance said, eyeballing her. “Besides, those are iron ropes, so he won’t be able to magic his way out, plus I can see them chafing his scales from here. He’s in pain!”

As if to prove his statement, the trapped dragon yanked against the ropes violently and went down again with a muffled, agonized roar. There must have been something muzzling him as well.

“Fine, maybe I have something that can cut those ropes…” Pidge muttered, slinging her backpack off and sitting down to rummage through it. Lance started towards the trapped dragon again, only to get pulled back- again. This time, it was Hunk.

“Dude, what’s your problem-“

“You don’t speak dragontongue, he’ll probably freak out at you and try to attack,” said Hunk, walking past Lance to go around to the trapped dragon’s face. “He’s vulnerable like this and he knows it. Even a human mage could do a lot of damage to a trapped dragon, maybe even _lethal_ damage.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly.”

Lance followed Hunk nonetheless, leaving Pidge to continue rummaging through her backpack and muttering to herself (“I know I packed those boltcutters- wait, no, that’s a smoke bomb”) to carefully walk around to the front of the trapped dragon. As he came into view, Lance was could only think one word- _beautiful_.

It was maybe an odd word to describe a giant flying lizard with deadly claws and teeth, but this dragon was beautiful, even with the painful-looking lacerations left behind from the ropes. He was angular and wiry, with the same purplish-red shade on his belly as his wings. The one eye that Lance could see glaring at them was a hypnotic purple.

Behind him, there was a flash of light as Hunk shifted into dragon form (Lance noticed a few of his wounds reopen, which must have hurt badly). The trapped dragon’s eyes went wide and he growled something through the chain around his snout. A threat? A question? Lance really needed to learn the dragon language.

Hunk growled back, gesturing to Lance with his head and taking a tentative step forward. A snarl from the other dragon made him freeze. “He can’t say much without opening his mouth, but he doesn’t want us any closer.”

“Does he speak English?”

Hunk made an inquiring growl, waited for the answer, then spoke again. “Yeah, but he can’t exactly say anything in it right now.”

“Hey, we’re not gonna hurt you, okay?” Lance said, addressing the trapped dragon, who snorted derisively. “Really, I mean it. We can cut those ropes or something, but you have to let my friend get close.”

A growl.

“He asked, ‘which friend’,” said Hunk. “I think, anyway.”

“She’s behind you,” said Lance. “Will you let her get close? Then maybe I can try to do something about those chafe marks?”

There were a few tense moments of silence, then the trapped dragon let out another growl. This one didn’t sound threatening, just… begrudging.

“He said yes,” said Hunk. “Or, more accurately, he was like, ‘fiiiiiine’.”

The trapped dragon snorted indignantly, causing Hunk to start speaking to him in dragontongue again. Lance spotted Pidge run up with the boltcutters (gee, running with sharp tools wasn’t a bad idea at all) and waved her over. Soon, they were snipping each iron rope apart and away from the trapped dragon, who yanked each one off to the best of his ability with gusto.

“That- should- do- it,” huffed Lance, heaving down on the last rope with Pidge and Hunk (who’d shifted back due to pain) helping. It snapped with a _twang_ and the black dragon surged to his feet, stretching his legs and neck happily. When he spoke, it was with a voice rusty from disuse.

“Thanks,” he said gruffly, one wing folding up with a snap. The other trailed awkwardly on the ground.

“No problem,” said Hunk, shifting back. His bandages didn’t come back, so he just held his arm at his side with many winces. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have seen some Galra passing through? With three human prisoners, all mages?”

The black dragon froze in examining a scrape on his foreleg. “Galra? Here?”

“I guess that’s a no, then,” said Lance, deflating.

“It’s not like we could have fought them on foot like this, Lance,” said Pidge, zipping up her backpack. “We were being a little unrealistic earlier. You need to recharge your light magic anyway.”

“You’re a light mage?” The black dragon leaned closer to Lance, which gave the human a much better look at his sharp teeth. “I thought you said you were a healer.”

“I am,” said Lance. “And a light mage. And a water mage.”

The black dragon snorted. “I’m not stupid. Humans don’t have multiple specialties like that. Which clan are you from?”

“Lance does,” said Hunk, smiling good-naturedly. “And he’s human, trust me.”

“Just how much could you possibly heal right now? You’re still pretty much out of healing magic, right?” Pidge said, voice muffled from a jerky strip she’d pulled out of her bag. She didn’t offer to share, which honestly wasn’t surprising.

“I can do something, at least,” said Lance. “Preventing infection isn’t hard.”

“I’m good,” said the black dragon, stepping away and eyeing Lance suspiciously. “I don’t need healing.”

“You sure, dude? That wing doesn’t look so good,” said Hunk, with that tone of voice he typically used on Lance when he knew he was right.

The black dragon huffed and and tried to leap into the air, but his bad wing only flopped around and sent him crashing (nearly into Lance, who dodged just in time). Grumpily, he said, “Fine, whatever. You can try to heal me.”

“I don’t know anything about wings,” said Lance, trying to get a better look. “Can you shift? It’s easier for me to fix human parts.”

The black dragon hesitated. “You sure about that?”

“I think I know my own abilities pretty well,” Lance scoffed.

The black dragon grumbled something in dragontongue and curled up on the ground resolutely. Purple light shimmered over his scales and in a flash, there was a small, skinny human teenage sitting on the ground wearing all black. His arm hung awkwardly at his side, clearly dislocated at the shoulder and possible fractured at the wrist. Lance was the first to reach him, right before Hunk and Pidge.

“Hey, I forgot to ask,” said Hunk as Lance started checking the bad arm. “What’s your name?”

“You can call me Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anything could survive the nuclear apocalypse and then dragons it would be a Nokia, fight me,
> 
> Sorry for the wait, but this chapter just don’t want to be written- I swear I have a better plan for upcoming chapters so it won’t be as much of a hiatus lmao 
> 
> *cut to me a month from now frantically typing* tHiS iS fInE


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say for myself beyond “writer’s block can go jump off a cliff”
> 
> Enjoy some backstory!

“What kind of a name is Keith? That sounds like a human name, not a dragon one- ow!”

Keith may have had only one working arm, but his left arm was certainly good enough to hit Lance in the shoulder. “I said you could call me Keith, not that it was my given name! And how would you know about the difference between dragon and human names?”

“Don’t hit the guy trying to fix your arm!” Lance snapped, accidentally letting go of Keith’s broken wrist and jarring it.

“OW! Nice job, jerk-“

“You’re the one who hit me!”

“You’re the one who made fun of my name, prick! Some healer you are!”

“What I should have made fun of is your hair! It looks ridiculous!”

“Wh- how does my hair even factor into this? And it’s not like I’m able to take care of it a lot! I AM A DRAGON!”

Pidge and Hunk shared an exasperated glance with each other while Keith and Lance continued bickering. 

“They’re like an old married couple,” Pidge muttered, chomping on her jerky. “Should we stop them or watch the fireworks?”

Hunk rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. “Stop them, obviously-“

“Cool, I’ll grab the pepper spray-“

“Pidge!”

“What? Look at them!”

Hunk picked up a nearby pebble and threw it at Lance, not wanting to get any closer to Keith (who was nearly hissing every time he spoke) than he had to. “Guys! Come on!”

Lance glared, but went back to examining Keith’s arm. “Yep, that’s dislocated.”

“You don’t say,” grumbled Keith. 

“Don’t start again,” said Hunk, reluctantly getting up to help. Pidge said something about examining the map and stayed where she was- probably squeamish. 

“I can’t fix everything,” said Lance, poking a wet spot of blood on Keith’s sleeve and acknowledging the dragon’s wince. “There’s a fracture in your wrist and just below your shoulder, your fingers are barely holding together, and you dislocated your shoulder. I can fix the big stuff, but your hand’s gonna be out of commission for a while.”

“That’s a lot, what’d you even do?” Hunk asked, handing Lance some bandages from his pack. 

“Crashed,” said Keith in a perfect deadpan. 

“I was asking for details.”

Keith huffed. “Fine. I got caught up in that storm last night, hit a few trees on the way down, and crash-landed in that dragon trap right on my wing. The wires made it worse and I was stuck there since around midnight. How’s that for details?”

Hostile to strangers, check. Apparently knew his way around human form, check. Absolutely nowhere near any clans that he could think of, check. Hunk was starting to think Keith was a rogue like the Galra that started the whole mess, but he kept that to himself for future reference. 

“Who even sets dragon traps?” Lance asked, white-blue sparks dancing around his fingers as he did his best for Keith’s fingers. “Humans?”

“Those pop up everywhere around here,” Keith said, shifting uncomfortably at what Hunk knew was an itchy feeling from the healing magic. “I’m pretty sure it’s Clan Galra looking for deserters. This is a neutral zone- you get a lot of rogues.”

He sounded like he spoke from experience. 

“Oh. Makes sense,” said Lance, nodding. He finished bandaging Keith’s hand and looked to Hunk. “We need to put his shoulder back.”

Hunk winced. “Right.”

He was surprised when Keith didn’t yell at what must have been an incredibly painful experience, but it was over quick. Lance healed the two fractures left in a flash of light, stood up, and promptly collapsed. 

“What the- why’d he pass out?” Keith sputtered, awkwardly trying to prop Lance up with his good arm. Hunk sighed, only partially surprised, and picked Lance up himself. 

“Healing magic doesn’t have its own source,” he explained to Keith, checking Lance’s pulse. Steady. “That has to come from the mage’s soul, apparently. I dunno, Lance explained it like once- long story short is it makes him pass out if he uses too much at once.”

“Oh. So he’s okay?”

“Yeah, but he’ll be out for awhile,” said Pidge irritably. “Can you move the hand or is it stuck like that?”

“No,” grumbled Keith, refocusing on his bandaged wrist. It probably hurt, but he didn’t show any outward signs of it. “Looks like I’m grounded.”

“Aw, man, I was hoping for backup in case Sendak found us before we found him,” complained Pidge. “Can’t do that if you’re stuck as a hu-“

“Did you say Sendak?” Keith’s head shot up and he was right in front of Pidge in seconds, grabbing her shoulder with his good arm. She started to protest, but he cut her off. “Are you sure? That’s who you’re looking for?”

“Unless he was lying when he announced his name to everyone present- let go of me!”

Keith stepped back and Pidge slipped a small knife back into her belt (Hunk hadn’t even seen her draw it). “He’s actually in the area?”

“Why, do you know him?” Hunk asked warily, eyeing Keith’s expression. He looked… angry, almost. Not scared.

“I’ve got a bone to pick with that particular Galra,” said Keith evasively. “Why are you looking for him? That’s a death wish for a human and two adolescent dragons, one of whom is the size of a twig.”

Pidge whacked his side indignantly. “I am not the size of a twig! And you’re adolescent too, embers-for-brains!”

“Sendak kidnapped Lance’s sister and a couple of other mages traveling with us,” said Hunk, hurriedly stepping in between the two before Pidge started a fight. “We’re trying to get them back.”

Keith furrowed his brows, confused. “Why would Sendak want human mages? The Galra have plenty of dragons who can use magic.” His voice sounded bitter on the last sentence, like he knew from experience. 

“We don’t know,” said Pidge.

Keith looked like he was mulling something over for a moment before he spoke again. “Let me come with you.”

“Sorry?” Hunk said, raising an eyebrow. 

“Let me come with you,” Keith insisted. “Like I said, I’ve got a vendetta against Sendak- and you said you need backup. I’m good backup.”

“I don’t-“ Hunk started to say, but Pidge cut him off.

“Cool, new travel buddy,” she said, sticking a hand out for Keith to shake. “Nice to have you with us.”

“Pidge-“ Hunk began again, but then he stopped himself. Despite not knowing which clan Keith was from, the black dragon had definitely looked like someone who could handle a fight. He bore a lot of the signs of a dragon who spent much of their time fighting- chipped scales, well-worn but sharp claws, and so on. Besides, Keith was grounded. Hunk couldn’t in good conscience leave a grounded dragon to fend for themselves, so he sighed and gave in. “Alright, fine. Welcome aboard, Keith.”

“Now we just gotta wait for Lance to wake up,” said Pidge, making a face. “It’s the middle of the day, couldn’t he have picked a better time to keel over?”

“Be nice, Pidge, he was healing somebody,” admonished Hunk. She grunted in a noncommittal way and sat down, re-examining her map. Hunk sighed and turned to Keith, who had an inscrutable look on his face. Something about his features was off- and now that he was closer, Hunk would see that Keith’s shift from dragon to human wasn’t quite complete. His eyes were too purple, his canines just a little too sharp, and his ears too pointy for a human. 

“So…. which clan did you say you were from?” Hunk said conversationally.

Keith wasn’t glaring, but his stare was cold regardless. “I didn’t say.” 

“So which one, then? I’m Balmeran,” he offered. “Or that’s what Pidge guessed. I don’t really remember much about it.”

“None of your busi- wait, what do you mean?” Keith screwed his brows together, confused. “You don’t remember it? Remember what?”

“Being a dragon, I guess,” shrugged Hunk. He looked around for a comfortable spot to sit and did so, next to Lance. Keith awkwardly sat and hugged his knees, careful of his fractured fingers and sore shoulder. “I grew up with Lance and his family. I haven’t even transformed back since I was seven.”

“Not even once?”

“Not since last night. We got attacked.” Hunk went on to explain the events of the storm and the kidnapping of Veronica and the other two mages. Keith was a surprisingly good listener, never once interrupting (like Lance) or daydreaming and going off on some tangent (like Pidge). It was refreshing, to be honest. 

“That sounds like a rogue to me,” said Keith once Hunk was done. Pidge was listening to their conversation halfheartedly after moving over to Lance’s other side and doodling in her notebook. Hunk made a mental note to ensure she didn’t draw a mustache on their friend’s face. Or something else. 

“Rogues are dragons without a clan, right?” Hunk said carefully, keeping an eye on Keith’s expression. Maybe playing dumb would work. 

Or not. Keith didn’t seem to notice his attempt, instead answering the false question in earnest. Subtlety didn’t seem to be the best tactic for that guy. “Yeah, this area’s full of them. Mostly Galran deserters or refugees with nowhere to go.”

“Refugees from the war, you mean?”

Keith nodded. “There’s not a lot in this part of the continent settlement-wise, so every dragon who doesn’t have a place to go ends up here.”

“You know a lot about it,” said Pidge, not looking up from her notebook. Hunk glanced at her sketch but couldn’t quite discern what it was- something vaguely dragonish. “Come here often?”

“Don’t use Lance’s pickup lines, they’re terrible,” said Hunk, dodging the pencil Pidge threw at his head (“I WAS NOT HITTING ON HIM!”) and refocusing on Keith. Was that a smile disappearing from the black dragon’s face? “To rephrase Pidge’s slipup- OW! No hitting, Pidge!- you really do seem to know how these mountains and the plains around them work.”

Keith shifted uncomfortably, suddenly avoiding eye contact. “I’m around here a lot.”

“Now I’m really confused,” said Pidge, ignoring her quest to throw as many small pebbles and leaves at Hunk as possible to look quizzically at Keith. “There aren’t any clans in these mountains, and humans pass through pretty often for an area frequented by dragons like you say. Where exactly are you from?”

“Are you a rogue?” Hunk asked bluntly. 

Keith sputtered indignantly. “No! I have a clan, just-“ he froze. “It’s complicated.”

Hunk squinted at him suspiciously. “Complicated, huh? That’s-“

“Can we leave it at that?”

Pidge and Hunk shared a conspiratory glance, but did as Keith asked. He was clearly uncomfortable with too many questions, after all. 

It took another hour and a half for Lance to wake up. Hunk and the others had taken to trying to predict where the Galra might have gone and the possible routes they could take to cross the mountain range without the use of wings (having not flown for years, Hunk was rusty at best, Keith was too injured, and Pidge couldn’t possibly have carried all three of the others). 

“There’s a pass north of here,” Keith insisted, jabbing a spot on the map that decidedly did not have a pass marked on it. “I’ve been there, it should be easy to go through as humans-“

“What do you mean, ‘there’s a pass’, people have been mapping this area for several years now and nobody ever saw that,” argued Pidge, yanking the map away from him. She probably would have started another squabble had Lance not sat up suddenly, dislodging the blanket Hunk had put over him and startling Keith.

“What happened? Where am I?” Lance leapt to his feet and blearily whipped around as if looking for an attacker. ”Who-“

“Lance! Calm down! You’re safe, alright?” Hunk said, standing up and trying to soothe his friend. 

“Finally! You’ve been snoring away for hours,” said Pidge huffily. Hunk swatted at her shoulder, frowning, but Pidge dodged easily. “You up for that tracking spell?”

Lance stretched his arms above his head, spine popping. “Ye-ep! I should be good now- where’s the scale?”

Pidge tossed it to him and Lance caught it deftly. Hunk did have to stop Pidge from also throwing the small glass bottle needed for the spell, but otherwise, Lance was able to start without a hitch.

 

….

 

Keith was still somewhat skeptical about Hunk’s reassurances that Lance was “definitely completely human”. His hand did feel like it was full of splinters, but his formerly dislocated shoulder didn’t even ache and the numerous slashes, cuts, and bruises that normally came after a bad landing (and he’d had several) were nonexistent. That took a lot of magic to heal, and Lance had said he was already low before fixing Keith’s wounds and passing out- Keith didn’t know many humans, but he did know that their magic, as a rule, was much weaker than that of any dragon. 

But the glow around Lance’s eyes and hands as he handled the scale… 

It held real power. 

Lance’s magic pooled in the palm of his hand where the scale sat, soaking into it. The scale changed from purple to bright cobalt and started twitching violently as it tried to get back to its owner, brought to life by the tracking spell. 

“Bottle, please,” said Lance, the scale wiggling around frantically in his hands as the light from his eyes faded and disappeared. It nearly yanked itself right out of his grip before Pidge caught it in the bottle and firmly sealed it with a cork (Keith still wasn’t sure where she kept getting all the random supplies- her bag wasn’t that large). Now, instead of an easily-lost scale, they had a functioning compass that pointed directly to the owner of said scale. 

“The dragon this came from is headed southwest,” said Hunk, examining an actual compass and their map. “Guess we don’t have to worry about whether or not Keith’s mountain pass exists.”

Keith bristled when he heard that. “Why would I lie?”

“Sorry, I just-“

“Why’s the angry dragon with the bad haircut still here?” Lance interrupted, apparently only just noticing Keith. “Considering how badly you didn't want me to heal you, I kinda figured you’d leave. Do you think you owe me or someth-“

“I’m sticking around because I’m after Sendak, human, not because I owe you,” Keith growled. Literally. A little voice at the back of his head that didn’t belong to him regretted it after the other three glanced at each other uncomfortably and busied themselves getting their bags together.

_There you go again, scaring people off. You gotta make friends eventually._

_Shut up, Shiro, Keith thought grumpily._

“Welp, we better start walking. Might as well get a head start until somebody who can actually carry us all is able to fly,” said Pidge, shouldering her backpack and snatching the tracking bottle. Lance grabbed it back and started in the direction it pointed- deeper into the forest and along where Keith knew the mountain range ran. 

Then Pidge’s words hit him. “Somebody? Are you including me?”

“Um, duh? I saw those wings, you seem like a good flyer.”

Keith honestly wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he shut up and followed Lance and Pidge. Hunk was close behind him as they forged a way deeper into the forest. Deeper into the mountains.

Deeper into trouble.

 

….

 

“Can I ask you a question?” 

Keith, who’d been zoned out as they walked through the forest, jumped when Lance suddenly spoke up practically in his ear. “Excuse me?”

“Sorry, just curious about something. And Pidge told me to stop jabbering at her, so.” Lance shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

“Yeah, whatever. Fire away.”

“What’s up with your ears? And your eyes? They look-“

Keith had heard this before. “Weird” or “strange” or “wrong” were typically words that came after those questions. 

“-cool, but not fully human like Pidge or Hunk do. Is that part of the spell?”

“Um- yeah, actually,” said Keith, taken aback. “I- it’s a long story.”

“Well, we got all day-“

“A story I don’t like telling. Sorry,” Keith said brusquely. 

Keith almost felt bad for brushing Lance off when the other boy’s face fell. “Oh. Sorry I asked, then.”

Keith awkwardly looked away and ended up catching Hunk’s eye. The Balmeran evidently took pity on him- or maybe Lance- and spoke up. “You want to hear how I ended up on that eastern beach eleven years ago, Lance?”

“You said you don’t remember anything,” said Lance, curiosity sparking in his eyes. They were nice eyes, Keith thought distractedly. Almost like the sky… 

He slapped himself internally. 

_No pining over random human mages, you idiot!_

“Well, I don’t, to be honest,” said Hunk, and Keith realized that he had begun his story. “At least, not all of it.”

“I think he has amnesia,” said Pidge, randomly chiming in. She’d wrestled Lance for the tracker spell bottle and was now holding it tied to a stick in front of her like a lantern. “When I showed up and recognized him as a dragon-“

“How could you be sure?” Lance interrupted. Pidge glared at him with a surprising amount of venom for someone her size before continuing.

“He sneezed fire in front of me, Lance, that seems like a pretty dead giveaway!”

“I had a cold that day!” Hunk said defensively. “Illness messes with transformation spells!”

“I guess that explains why you always avoided everyone whenever you got sick,” said Lance. “But, uh, you were saying, Pidge?”

Pidge glared again, but there was no real heat to it this time. “I recognized him and asked him what the hell a dragon was doing living with a bunch of human nomads and all he said was that he couldn’t remember. I’ve been reteaching him our language and stuff.”

“She’s a really mean teacher,” Hunk muttered. Pidge pushed back a branch and “accidentally” let it swat him in the leg as he passed, earning her a glare. Louder, he continued, “I don’t remember everything, like I said, but some stuff sticks out to me. I remember a storm… or maybe it was some kind of threat that I didn’t understand at the time. I was pretty young. Whatever it was, we had to fly away from it- across the ocean. It was chaotic and scary and I didn’t really have a handle on flying yet, so I got lost. I ended up on this continent somehow.”

“Got lost?” Lance wondered aloud.

“You mean you lost your family,” said Keith quietly. Pidge shot him an odd look, but said nothing.

Hunk nodded. “I think I crashed into the ocean at some point? I’m not sure. But I do know I ended up in the East, with no idea where anyone or anything I knew was. That’s when I heard people coming.”

“I was there for that part,” said Lance, brightening. Then his brows furrowed in confusion. “But you were human, I remember that much. We thought you got shipwrecked or something and took you in.”

“I heard human voices and I panicked,” explained Hunk sheepishly. “That was actually my first shift ever. You know the rest.”

“How come you stayed?” Keith asked, before realizing it was a bit of a stupid question. Hunk had mentioned not shifting since age seven, and a seven-year-old dragon without a clan was in major trouble. Hunk got lucky being taken in by a friendly group that young.

Hunk shrugged. “I was scared, Lance gave me some of his food, his mom was nice, I dunno. It’s not like I had anywhere else to go, either- I don’t remember where my old clan lived, and I never knew where exactly we were headed.”

“Hunk… buddy, I’m so sorry,” said Lance. He sounded like he regretted wanting to listen to the story. 

“Don’t be! I’m glad I ended up with you and your family, actually,” said Hunk, beaming back at Lance as he pushed past some branches. “It’s-“

“Do you hear guys smell that?” Pidge interrupted, freezing in her attempt to clamber over a thick root. Keith took a moment to actually smell the air and caught a whiff of something…. bad. He hissed in displeasure. 

“Hey, I don’t have a super-nose,” said Lance, tapping Keith on the shoulder. “What’s Pidge talking about?”

“I‘m starting to worry about which Galra this scale came from,” said Pidge. The scale was now jumping around within the bottle like an angry bee, tugging it towards where the bad smell drifted on the breeze from. “If it was one of the blinded ones….”

“Sendak would have killed any crippled soldier to avoid slowing down,” said Keith. The smell was getting clearer as the breeze picked up- like iron and rust and something rotten. It smelled like death. 

“Well, it looks like we’re getting closer,” said Lance, snatching the bottle from the end of Pidge’s stick and striding forward. Keith, Hunk, and Pidge followed close behind, the scale clinking ominously against the glass bottle. 

“Ugh, even I can smell that now,” said Lance after about five minutes of fighting past brambles. Keith was starting to fervently wish for a muted sense of smell like humans had- the scent of blood was beginning to overwhelm his nose. Pidge and Hunk weren’t doing much better (Pidge had the lower half of her face covered by her shirt while Hunk had tied a bandana around his mouth and nose). “How are you guys still standing?”

“I sure don’t wanna be,” said Pidge, her voice muffled. “We should- OH, GROSS!”

They’d broke the through the line of trees and stumbled right onto the edge of a ravine. A dragon lay crumpled on the ground right in front of them- and Keith didn’t need the overpowering scent of blood to know that it was dead. 

“That’s definitely one of the Galra who attacked us,” said Pidge shakily, avoiding Hunk, who was throwing up in the bushes. Keith couldn’t blame him. “Probably the one Lance blinded. Keith, you- you must have been right about Sendak.”

“Hold it, look at the scale,” said Lance. He was still holding the bottle, the scale jittering wildly inside it. But, oddly enough, it wasn’t tugging in the direction of the dead Galra. The bottle that Lance held loosely was pointing right at the ravine.

The ravine…. which Keith could swear he recognized. 

He cast about for a good tree to climb and did his best to get to the top (despite Lance irritatedly yelling at him not to make his wrist worse after “all the effort I put into it!”). It was slow, but once he’d climbed enough and could see deeper into the ravine, Keith’s suspicions were confirmed.

Then a spark bloomed in the darkest depths of the ravine, and Keith shouted a warning to the other three below- “We need to get out of here! Away from the edge! If we don’t-“

But before any of them could act, a column of flames erupted from the ravine, quickly followed by the thunder of dragon wings in flight. Keith scrambled out of the tree, pushed Pidge behind some brambles, and dragged Lance back with him (Hunk already dove behind a tree the instant the dragons showed themselves). Keith’s quick thinking evidently worked, since the dragons from the ravine only flew straight up into the sky and began winging their way east. 

They were clearly Galra. 

“Wh-what was that?” Hunk stammered, visibly shaking. Pidge, who was shaking thorns out of her hair and giving Keith an excellent death glare, helped him to his feet.

“This isn’t just any ravine,” explained Keith. He steadied his breathing before continuing. “This is a Galra outpost. And if that scale led us here, then the people you’re looking for are either dead or wishing they were.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it’s safe to say this fic will have... sporadic updates at best NOT BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE IT OR BECAUSE I’M OUT OF IDEAS but because the other fic that I’m currently working on is much easier to put on paper (digital paper but whatever) 
> 
> However, I promise I won’t let it go over a month next time lol
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!


	4. Author’s Note

Me: Wow this story looks like it’s finally got the ball rolling! I’ll definitely be able to write mo-

The entirety of March: hold my beer

Look, I swear this isn’t gonne become an abandoned fic- I actually have a quite a bit planned out, but all of that is fairly far down the storyline. Couple that with the unexpectedly busy schedule I’ve had recently and the writing slump that hit me a few weeks ago and what do you get? A very, very delayed update that isn’t even a proper update. 

I’m very sorry to everyone following this fic for all the delays and my failure to keep up any kind of schedule (I’m a disaster and that’s on me lmao) BUT I will take the first chance I get to crank out decent-length chapters

(I’m also sorry for leaving y’all on a cliffhanger that was just rude of me)

Sincerely, the very-sorry-for-the-delay author

**Author's Note:**

> Cliffhanger lol 
> 
> (Sorry-not-sorry)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, as always, and see y’all next chapter!
> 
> I promise Keith will be in it next time lmao


End file.
